Excela pays $10M to settle suits by 2 cardiologists, doctors' attorney says

Excela Health is paying $10 million to settle civil suits brought by two cardiologists who formerly held staff privileges at the health system’s Westmoreland Hospital in Greensburg, according to an attorney representing the doctors.

In the suits that were dropped Tuesday in Allegheny County Court, Drs. George Bou Samra and Ehab Morcos claimed they suffered damages as a result of statements by Excela representatives. Those assertions were made at a news conference and in letters more than a decade ago and called into question the necessity of coronary artery stent procedures the pair performed.

More than 100 lawsuits were filed in Westmoreland County Court by patients of the doctors after Excela in early 2011 sent letters to 192 patients disclosing that they may have received unnecessary stents in those procedures, based on information from reviews of the doctors’ work. Stents are mesh tubes used to widen and improve blood flow in blocked arteries.

Attorney John A. Caputo, who has represented the doctors in their civil action, said Excela — a Westmoreland County-based health system now part of the regional Independence Health System — is paying the full settlement amount on behalf of all defendants in the cases.

The suits also named two medical review organizations as defendants.

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“Nothing in the settlement agreement should be construed as an admission by the parties of any liability to each other,” said attorney David Strassburger, who represented Excela in the case.

He said Excela “is gratified to have put the matter behind them. It should also be stressed that the vast majority of the monetary component of the settlement is covered by insurance and will have no material effect on Excela.”

The doctors filed suit in 2012, alleging that their use of stents was proper and that Excela conducted the reviews and made the related announcement “with improper motives related to its business operations,” Caputo said.

The suits alleged that Excela intended to “disrupt” and “undercut” the practice for which they worked, Westmoreland County Cardiology.

In court documents, the defendants denied that they engaged in “actions intended to disparage or diminish the reputation of Westmoreland Cardiology.”

Excela had entered a counter-claim, citing “substantial costs and expenses” it incurred as a result of the alleged unnecessary stent procedures.

Caputo said the doctors claimed “great reputational harm and inability to function in their practices as well as great hardship to their families.”

The settlement was reached after 11 years of litigation and multiple appeals.

The suits in Westmoreland have been settled or otherwise resolved save one that is still pending on behalf of a patient from Connellsville against Bou Samra, Westmoreland County Cardiology and Excela.

One case went to trial in the Westmoreland court. It was filed by a North Huntingdon man who claimed five of seven stents he received in 2008 during three procedures at Excela Health Westmoreland Hospital were not medically required.

A Westmoreland County jury in 2014 ruled in favor of the hospital and Morcos. Bou Samra was not a defendant in that lawsuit.